The present disclosure relates to the field of computers, and specifically to satisfying a computer need for a resource. More specifically, the present disclosure relates to satisfying a computer with a resource that is identified by an interactive dialogue between a client computer and an intermediary server that may provide the client computer with access to the resource.
When upgrading a computer system using current systems, a user is typically asked to authorize the installation of a new version of software, hardware, etc. For example, a software provider may send the user a message such as “A new version of Application A is available. Do you want to upgrade this application?” If so, then the user will click a button that causes the new application to be downloaded onto the computer system.
However, the computer system may or may not be improved by downloading the new version of the application. That is, the old version may work better, or an alternative application (not the new version of “Application A”) may actually be a better choice when optimizing the operation of the computer system. That is, the user may or may not know what the configuration of the computer, version of software being used by the computer, etc. is optimal for a particular computer and, more specifically, the work that the particular computer performs.
Furthermore, there may be several updated versions of the application available to the client computer, including different updates available from various updating sites/sources. As such, the client computer (or user thereof) is unlikely to be aware of such different updates.
Furthermore, even if the client computer (or user thereof) is aware of such different alternatives, it most likely is unable to determine what best meet its needs.
To address these problems, the present invention utilizes an interactive dialog between a computer system (that requested a resource) and an intermediary server, which is able to provide an optimal resource to the computer system based on the results of the interactive dialog. That is, the present invention does not merely filter out resource options based on the responses from the computer system, for instance, a filter system may filter upgrades if the client computer requests upgrades that are faster than X and more reliable than % Y. Rather, the invention can cope with dialog requests such as “I am short on time but I can't tolerate errors”. The invention uses these dialog responses to determine what features the computer system (or alternatively, the user of the computer system) actually needs in order to obtain the right resource. Therefore, the present invention allows the server system, which may or may not be an expert system, to engage with the computer system in order to expand the selection phase, thereby including preferences not requested initially by the computer system.